Beginners Guide: How to Install a WordPress Theme

Are you looking to install a WordPress theme? As a beginner, you probably have heard about tons of available free and paid WordPress themes. As you’re starting out, you may want to try out a few themes on your site until you find the right one that meet your needs. In this beginner’s guide, we will provide you with detailed step by step instructions on how to install a WordPress theme for beginners. We will cover three different ways to install a WordPress theme.

Before You Install a WordPress Theme

Installing a WordPress theme is easy. But keep in mind that if you activate a new theme, then it will change how your website looks and function. If you’re switching from an existing theme, then you may want to look at our checklist of things you need to do before changing WordPress themes.

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Install a Theme using WordPress Admin Theme Search

If you’re looking to install a free WordPress theme from the WordPress.org themes directory, then the easiest way is by using the WordPress admin theme search functionality.

First thing you need to do is login to your WordPress admin area. Next, click on Appearance » Themes.

Once you are on the themes page, click on the Add New button at the top.

On the next screen, you will have the ability to select from: Featured WordPress themes, Popular WordPress themes, Latest WordPress themes, search for a specific theme, or search for themes with specific features.

Based on your search, you will see a single theme or a list of themes that met your criteria. In our case, we searched for the blogging theme Slipstream.

When you see the theme that you want to install, simply bring your mouse on top of the image. This will reveal the install button, preview button, and details button. Go ahead and click on the install button.

WordPress will now install your theme and show you a success message along with the link to activate or live preview.

Note: Depending on the theme, it may add additional settings options that you may need to configure either through the theme customizer or through a separate options panel.

Install a Theme by using Upload Method from WordPress Admin

The first method that we covered only allows you to install free themes that are available in the WordPress.org theme’s directory. But what if you want to install a commercial “premium” WordPress theme from companies like ThemeLab, StudioPress, iThemes, etc.

Or what if you want to install a custom theme? Well in this case, you would need to install the theme using the upload method from your WordPress admin.

Start by downloading the .zip file of the theme that you purchased from a marketplace or a commercial theme provider.

Next login to your WordPress admin area and click on Appearance » Themes.

Once you are on the themes page, click on the Add New button at the top.

On the next screen, click on the Upload Theme button at the top.

You will be prompted to choose the zip file that you downloaded earlier. Select the file and click Install Now.

Once your theme is installed, you will see a success message along with the link to activate and preview the theme.

Click on the activate button, and you’ve successfully installed and activated your WordPress theme. Depending on the theme, it may add additional settings options that you may need to configure either through the theme customizer or through a separate options panel.

Note: The theme upload functionality is only available for self-hosted WordPress.org users. If you’re using WordPress.com, then you will not see this option because it limits you. In order to use custom theme upload feature, you would need to use self-hosted WordPress.org (See this article that explains the difference between Self Hosted WordPress.org vs WordPress.com). If you want to switch from WordPress.com to WordPress.org, then read our tutorial on how to properly move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.

Installing a WordPress Theme using FTP

If you’re feeling adventurous and want take it to the next level, then you can learn about installing WordPress themes using FTP. Remember, this is not for true beginners because it is a little bit more advanced.

Now that you have read the article above and installed and setup your FTP program, connect to your host using FTP. You would need to go to the path (/wp-content/themes/). Once you’re there, simply upload your theme’s folder there.

Remember you must unzip the folders before you upload a theme using FTP. Once you have uploaded the theme, you would need to go to your admin area and click on Appearance » Themes.

You should see the theme that you uploaded listed there. Bring your mouse on top of that theme and click on the activate button.

We hope this step by step guide helped you install a WordPress theme on your site. This article was created using the screenshots of version WordPress 3.9. Since WordPress is constantly evolving, we will try our best to keep this guide up to date. If you notice that there is something missing, then feel free to let us know.

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84 Comments

Thankyou. Unfortunately (i wont mention the website), dosent actually show you how to install the themes properly. They give you a brief look over, but not actually how to do it step by step. Sometimes, its what you need, thanks again.

I have dowloaded the Pro version of my basic free wordpress theme because the Pro version unlocks more features for colours and design. In my free theme it said : Go Pro. So that’s what I want to do.
However when I upload the pro version through WP theme installer, it says installation failed because there is already a folder with that name. Do you think the Pro zip file has the same name as the free basic version?
What should I do? Use an other theme for a few minutes and de-install the free basic theme first? And then install the pro zip file? I’m unsure what to do. And will deinstalling it from my wordpress theme collection also deinstall it from my host server?

Hi
I found a new theme that I have downloaded and subsequently installed onto my WordPress site for under Add Themes> upload theme. I want to activate it and move no contents from the existing site. I intend to have it the way it is. Any advice?
Thanks in advance

Hi, I am having issues here.. I have followed all this site’s steps to get my website on wordpress.org. I have a domain I bought a while ago, transferred it and have it successfully hosted now on BlueHost. I just purchased a WordPress premium theme for $125 (which is p expensive..) and I can’t get the .zip file anywhere.. Also, it auto installed onto the example.WORDPRESS sites instead of my wordpress.org Bluehosted nerdvegan.com and I have no idea how to switch it since there is nowhere to download the .zip file. Also, having multiple sites listed in and of itself is messing me up, how do I get rid of everything but just the example.com that is on wordpress.org? please help!~ thank you in advance!!

Please contact the theme shop you purchased the theme from to help you find the ZIP file you need to install. Once you are certain that you have the theme’s zip file on your computer. Go a head and login to your WordPress website where you want to install the theme. Go to the Appearance » Themes page and then click on the Add New button. Next, you need to click on the upload button to upload the theme file from your computer.

Thanks for the article. I have a few questions as I’m a bit confused. I already have a live website hosted by Inmotion hosting. I wanted to change the design so I found a theme on Envato by Themeforest, the provider was Themezaa – and I bought the theme I liked. It was a wordpress theme. After I bought, I realised I don’t know the difference between a normal theme and a wordpress theme. I found out that I can only use this wordpress theme I bought from a wordpress editor – which is fine by me as I’m not a coder (I only received a 3 month online course on html and css circuits) so I know a bit about editing html and css. Now that I bought the wordpress theme, I’m thinking, can I simply download the wordpress editor, keep my existing host (inmotion hosting), install this new theme, edit the contents and colors and then when I’m done simply connect my domain to my new website?
Is this how I’m suppose to do it?
or do I need to cancel my existing host, and start paying wordpress.com to host my website as I’m using their editor? Can you please let me know how this works?
Selin

Hi
I also I found a theme on Envato by Themeforest that I have downloaded and subsequently tried to upload onto my WordPress site for under Add Themes> upload theme and it does not want to install. It just says: “Error: fail to upload.” Any advice?
I then went to load it through the C-Panel- I loaded the Zip file, unzipped it and went to my dashboard. The theme box comes up empty, I pressed activate and the theme shows up only as HTML.
Suggestions?

Please see your theme’s installation instructions. Some theme developers on themeforest actually send you package which has documentation, PSD files, and theme itself is a separate zip file inside the main folder.

There is something wrong. I bought some themes from themeforest and they are all 60 to 90 mb in size. It took me about 20 minutes to download them. So i think that the 4 hours download (which still did not completes), there is something wrong.
You should contact the website admin from where you are downloading the theme.

i have theme in my local machine which i am trying to upload on my wordpress (also on local machine) but everytime i try to upload theme.. it shows me error saying ” are you sure want to do this?” and link saying please try again which will jump me back to previous page…

I have just purchased a theme through Mojo marketplace (Coastal) but it won’t let me upload it and it’s saying – ‘The parent theme is missing. Please install the “genesis” parent theme’ – do I need to spend MORE money buying this too? Please help

All my apologies for that!
So newbie on WP installing platforms that I did not realize I had a .COM Dashboard instead of a .ORG Dashboard… Anyway, it seems that I had first to install the new WP 4.2 version, and after downloading the pack in my computer, there was no zip file to open and install anything… So, my problem remains… I cannot even believe when reading from WP: “the famous and easy 5 min installation”. It is more like 5 hours to me.

Can anyone tell me why I keep getting download failed messages every time I attempt to install a theme from the themes directory? I also get error message when I try to update the plugins.
Thank you in advance.

I like the way you instruct, makes it so much easier, clear and not too quick for comprehension
…….. though I would like to set up a website not a blog, a place for information & room to keep adding information in the future, with possibility to ask questions if someone desires to do so, I don’t think a blog would do for that. Can you help me.

No not necessarily. In order to show you all the features of a theme, the demo would have additional content or images. When you download and install the theme on your site that content does not come with the theme. So your theme may not look exactly the same.

For new WordPress users – also note that if you purchase/download a premium theme, the theme .zip file itself is likely inside a larger “package” which also includes documentation, source files, etc. You will need to unzip the package, then get the actual theme .zip file.

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WPBeginner is a free WordPress resource site for Beginners. WPBeginner was founded in July 2009 by Syed Balkhi. The main goal of this site is to provide quality tips, tricks, hacks, and other WordPress resources that allows WordPress beginners to improve their site(s).